


Please Tell Us We're Not Forgotten

by BakerStTardis (Sokashi)



Series: Hobbit Advent [4]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 23:54:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1074541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sokashi/pseuds/BakerStTardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day Four Hobbit Advent. Prompt snowfall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please Tell Us We're Not Forgotten

Erebor was mostly silent. The dwarves who'd returned to its halls seemed like only a handful in its vastness, rattling lonely in its walls. Thorin usually made an effort to concentrate labor in certain areas or floors to fight the sobering effect but still- it was too quite. Especially when Fili didn't have Kili nearby. They didn't always get to spend the day working together. Being Thorin's heirs meant more responsibility in Erebor than it ever had in the Blue Mountains. They oversaw crews, checked mines, attended meetings and sometimes just ran as messengers between Thorin and whatever he needed done. Fili had noticed, though, that his brother went missing sometimes without there being the usually inevitable prank befalling someone later. None of the others seemed to notice, but then none of them, not even Thorin, knew Kili and well as Fili did.

Not wanting to get his brother in trouble, Fili set about descreetly searching the mountain. He wasn't in the mines which would've been surprising anyway since he'd never been real fond of them. Nor was he in the treasure room, the food hall, or drinking and gaming with the others that were off duty. Frowning, Fili ducked into the weapons room but at the sight of Dwalin and Thorin fiercely fighting in the middle of the floor he took off again. There was no way Kili would be around when Thorin was that angry and Fili had no desire to spend the rest of the day training under his Uncle's eye.

Eventually Fili wandered up to the royal suites. Only they and Thorin were staying in them although the others of the company officially had rooms there. Balin had told them one night that it was too quiet now up there. That they all saw shadows of dwarves who were there no longer and it made them uneasy. Fili and Kili truthfully just thought they all liked to have rooms closer to the food hall so they could spend whatever nights they liked drinking ale together and stumbling home late. 

Thorin had the king's rooms. He'd spent two days cleaning them out himself and it was only after he'd worked himself to exhaustion that he'd let Fili and Kili help him scrub the bare stone rooms down enough to be livable. Moody had been a kind word for their Uncle then. It had taken two more days before he'd speak beyond grunting and they'd wished for Bilbo's ease at teasing Thorin back into a good humor. Fili and Kili's rooms were to the left of their uncle's. A set of suites with doors between them that the brothers always kept open. To the right of Thorin's rooms was a suite set aside for their mother Dis and just next door to her were the rooms Thorin had declared Bilbo's although the hobbit had never heard it or seen them himself. No one had argued and no one dared to enter them. Thorin had cleaned them himself and was furnishing them in private which was why light shining around the edge of the door made Fili stop in startlement. Surely his brother wasn't there. Even Kili wouldn't be so stupid as to risk Thorin's rather over the hobbit's rooms...

"Kili?" Fili called cautiously, pushing the door open and squinting in the semidarkness. Light came from one of the rooms beyond but there was a scuffle and then Kili was there, lantern swinging in his hand. "Oh, Fili. Hello." He said lamely and tried to look innocent. Fili didn't know why he bothered.

"What are you doing in here? If Thorin finds you-"

Kili looked smug. "Thorin is with Dwalin and they'll fight until dinner. I'll be done by then."

"Done?" Fili echoed and watched Kili frown at himself. "What are you doing in here? Is this where you keep running off to? Why? They're just empty rooms."

"They're Bilbo's rooms." Kili insisted a touch petulantly. 

Fili sighed with frustration. "Yes, I know." He glanced over his shoulder, really wanting to get his brother out of the room before they set Thorin off on a mood again. "But he's never seen them so-"

"He hasn't seen them because we drove him away."

"He LEFT." Fili snapped, startling himself. "Uncle told him he didn't have to go but he left."

"And why should he have stayed?" Kili challenged, stepping forward angrily. "Banished. Tossed away. Left alone! What reason did we give him to stay?" 

They both fell silent, the unexpected argument filling the space between them. Then Kili's shoulders bowed and he scrubbed a dirty hand on one cheek. "I miss him, Fili." Kili said, his voice was full of aching helplessness, anger draining away as fast as it had appeared. Fili stared at his brother in surprise, Thorin forgotten for the moment. Kili set the lantern down and wiped his hands on a cloth tucked into his belt, eyes downcast and voice low. "We treated Bilbo wrongly. We should've listened to him, should've stopped Uncle. We knew Thorin wasn't well. We knew things weren't right, but we just stood there-"

"It wouldn't have helped-" Fili tried but stopped and shook his head before Kili could argue more.

The truth of it was that he'd been having this arguement with himself for over a year. They all were. It went unspoken but there was a heaviness to the company and this was the source. Fili sighed and moved into the room, pulling his brother into a hug. Kili went willingly enough, thumping his forehead against Fili's. They stood there for a long moment in silence and Fili didn't know what to say or what needed to be said. After a moment he took a breath. "We can't change what happened." He said finally. "And Bilbo would be the first to point that out." Kili snorted in agreement. Fili smiled and drew back a bit. "But brooding in his rooms isn't accomplishing anything, either."

"I'm not brooding." Kili argued.

"Moping?" Fili offered and laughed when Kili rolled his eyes. "So then what are you doing in here?"

Kili looked smug and handed Fili the lamp, gesturing to the room behind him. "Take a look and see."

Fili eyed him, but followed his brother's directions, stepping slightly into the next room. The royal suites each had their own bathing chamber, large and excessive. They were usually heavily decorated with tapestries and rugs, at least that's how their mother had always described them. At the moment they were all stripped bare. In the lamplight, though, Bilbo's once plain stone walls glittered. The closer Fili drew into the room, the glittering spread, moving with the lamplight like- "Snowfall." He breathed, amazed by the effect. Kili had carved hundreds and hundreds of tiny delicate snowflakes into the wall, little shards of gems embedded into the stone so they rippled and seemed to fall with the light. "Kili- this is amazing! How long have you been working on this?" 

"A few months now." Kili grinned, bounding in the doorway. "Look." He carried his brother through the room, pointing out the light sketch work he'd done along the stone. "I started with this one when we had that first bit of snowfall. You know how much Bilbo loves nature, even when he was complaining about the weather." Both brothers shared a grin. "So winter here, a nice snowfall on this empty wall. And you see? Thorin chose these rooms for Bilbo. Look at the bath." The large embedded pool was made of stone deep green in color. It took Fili a moment and then he blinked in surprise.

"It's the color of Bilbo's front door!" 

Kili grinned and nodded. "I want to carve the stone seats like tree trunks. Have them spread up into the walls from spring to winter." He gestured to the tub and along his sketches. "A massive pool at the base of a tree, branches stretched into a field of flowers for summer and then some more trees for fall where the racks once stood to hold towels and clothes and then winter near the door to the main room. The stonework will be the easy part. Laying colored jewels and tile to make it look natural will be harder. I don't want to use paint. It'll just fade too fast. I want it to last."

"Kili that's brilliant." Fili smiled. "But its going to take a ton of work."

Kili shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. "I know. And I don't know that Bilbo will ever some back, will ever see it. But- if he does, I want him to love it here. I want him to feel at home.We're deep in the mountain and he'll miss things like this. And I want him to see- I want to give him something to show-" Kili made a pained face, as if he want't sure how to properly finish the sentence. "It's like when we stepped into his home. It wasn't ours. It was so different from what we were used to, but he made us feel welcome. He made an effort for us. I want that. For him." He scrunched his face up and peered up at his brother. "Does that make sense?"

Fili smiled a put a hand to Kili's shoulder. "It does to me. Can I help?"


End file.
